On Saturday, I held my first ever full-day workshop at Deanfoot - though when I say "I", I really mean it was a team effort. One of the vital team members was Dana, most wonderful friend and skilled crafter herself (have you seen her gorgeous children's clothes?). Dana, and her military-style organisational skills, meant that the quiet preparation all came together at just the right time. With some additional help from Sheena, little miracles kept occurring: Furniture magically moving back under the gazebo, dishes cleared and who can forget the ball-winding dance! Thank you both very much.

Another key team member was Jenny from The Core who brilliantly led our yoga and, rather fantastically, the weather allowed us to practise outside! I don't have a great experience of yoga (unless wishing that I had time to do more counts?!) but I was very surprised at the difference it made doing it outdoors: It was simply wonderful. I have come to realise that there are probably few "perfect" places to practise yoga – even in a designated studio there will always be some untimely sound (usually at the relaxation part) – such as a lorry driving past or someone entering / exiting from a neighbouring building. So long as these don't interfere with your practise or create a distraction from which you can't separate yourself then these, as with lots of aspects of life, are things that we can try to accept and move on from. So while we were outside with the birds chirping in the trees around us, the water falling gently down the stream into the pond and enjoying the soft breeze upon our skin, yes vehicles continued to use the nearby road, trains ran along the track behind that – and a one of the resident cats had a quick sniff to check that the group of women lying in corpse pose weren't actually dead. This is me, so yes, I did fret a little that these "nuisances" might adversely affect the others but they seemed to take them in their stride – and were hopefully too consumed by the super class that Jenny had prepared. She pitched it to exactly the right level for all of us and executed it with her usual grace and friendliness – making everyone feel included and able, no matter what their (my!) actual ability.

Now you know that no workshop of mine would be complete without food playing quite an important role and so immediately after yoga, we sat together and enjoyed a breakfast of fresh fruit, yogurt, croissants and muffins. And then the knitting started!

This was an introduction to lace knitting for which I had designed a simple, but elegant, scarf using the falling leaf pattern, knitted in the ever sumptuous "Fine Art" from Rowan. "Antoinette" is designed to be beautiful yet functional, with a loop to allow the scarf to loosely fasten without flapping around shoulders or needing constant adjustment (spot the mother with two young children!). I am delighted to report that all knitters produced some simply stunning pieces of work! It was a joy to see confidence building as each row was completed, share in the satisfaction of seeing the pattern coming to life and a real pleasure to enjoy the different colour ways of the Fine Art as the scarves grew on the needles. One of the major learning points for me is the revelation that chocolate brownies are essential for lace knitting – for which I also need to thank Dana (I'd baked them for afternoon consumption - of course we had enough for two servings!). During that first row of knitting, which is always a bit tricky following the cast on and particularly if you've just learnt a new method to do so, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed: So much to take in – new techniques, the counting, the repeats, the counting, the keeping your place in the pattern, the counting, the occasional TINKing, the counting and then oh! The blessed relief of reaching the end of the row with the correct number of stitches! It can be exhausting! And put that way, it's blindingly obvious that brownies are required – and seemed to do the trick just nicely.

There was of course lunch after which we relaxed comfortably for another hour or so of knitting. If I could have bottled the atmosphere in the studio... It was just so wonderful to be part of that group at that time. Most of the major knitting hurdles had been crossed and people seemed content to carry on knitting at their own pace, enjoying the chat and the music (thanks again, Dana).

Little Miss Worry Pants (that's me, in case you’re wondering) always starts to feel uneasy at such times because I worry that I'm not doing my job if I'm not busy helping others – but there's something to be said for just being one of the knitters, and that thing is "thank you. Thank you very, very much".

Our day concluded with a soak in the hot tub. Not really sure what needs to be said about sitting in blood temperature water with the sun shining down on you: Bubbles, bubbles and more bubbles. It was a bit difficult to get out – as Husband will affirm as he found Sheena and me still wallowing nearly two hours later!

With requests for another knitting and yoga day retreat, I'm already planning new versions of Saturday including an exciting collaboration with Sheena, Seamstress par excellence and the talent of SeamSew. So keep a look out for more information – or join my mailing list (by emailing me) so that you're always among the first to know. Which leaves me to say an enormous "thank you" to everyone who came. Thank you for sharing so much of your precious time with me, thank you for being such excellent company, thank you for making a truly wonderful day xx

It's that time of year when the thoughts of us, in the northern hemisphere, are likely to turn to summer holidays. It may be that you're not going away – hoping to enjoy the best of the summer sunshine at home – but for those of us with school age children, this is most definitely holiday time, if only a holiday from school. We're preparing to go away for a fortnight in our motor home (potential thieves be aware that I have the most excellent security system in the form of my most kind – and vigilant – neighbours; please don't test them) and by preparing, I mean we're in that oh-so-dull packing stage. Under the "essentials" category of the Packing List is "knitting" which, since the introduction of The Plan, where I've remained a one-project-at-a-time gal, is very easy to transfer from home to motor home: I'm going to take my current project (a scarf) and the next project in the queue (baby / picnic blanket). And a spare, of course. A fortnight is plenty of time to knit these – although we're also packing our bicycles, wet suits, surf boards and walking boots which suggests that the entire time may not be dedicate to knitting. And there, my dear Katherine, all your knitting plans start to unravel. This isn't to say that I don't enjoy any of the other activities – because I do, very much, and this will be the first time that we put the boys in wet suits and introduce them to the waves so wish us luck! – but it really does interfere with the potential knitting achievements. It's at times such as this that I have to remind myself that I'm taking holiday knitting, I'm not going on a knitting holiday – and in terms of the knitting, the ramifications of this distinction are huge. Clearly you're speaking to a woman who wants it all: Near endless hours of knitting, interrupted only for activities of her choosing. It was one of the motivating ideas behind my yoga / knitting retreat day: Start the day practising some yoga, then spend the rest of the day knitting with beautiful yarn, eating delicious food, and just generally chilling out before going for a soak in the hot tub. Heaven. While it's only a day, I'm hopeful that the meditative pace of the day will really help those joining me to fully relax so that they'll feel refreshed – as well as pleased with their knitting accomplishments. The next sensible step would be to take the knitting retreat idea to more than one day and I'm delighted to be teaching at just such an event this autumn: The 2015 Geeky Puffin Knit Palooza, in Edinburgh from 29th October – 1st November. There's no mention of yoga but there is cake and plenty of knitting and other yarn-related activities: Attendees get to chose from seven classes (yours truly is teaching "Beginner Magic Loop" and "Sock Heels Master Class"), have plenty of dedicated yarn-ogling opportunities in the form of exclusive shopping time at the specially-organised vendor market and a yarn crawl. I'm particularly looking forward to Kate's – of 'A Playful Day' fame - class: "Getting to Grips with Social Media", where she'll be talking about using social media's 'Big Four' from both sides of the crafting fence: For business and for pleasure . And let me tell you about the goodie bag: Created by Sam of Knitrundig and filled with delights such as a skein of yarn in an exclusive colour way (dyed by Jess of Ginger Twist Studio), a notions pouch (again sewn by Sam), an exclusive set of stitch markers (made by Zena of Little Yellow Uke) and three patterns - surely the cherry on the cake of any knitting event? With all of these goings-ons (and more!), you might start to wonder if there'll be any time available for knitting but fear not! The retreat has been organised with this priority in mind and so I'm looking forward to spending lots of time with my needles, meeting old friends and new. (And if you fancy joining us, I believe there are a few tickets left.)

Well, it's about the time that the boys start taking apart the inside of the motor home in search of their toys and Husband makes threatening sounds about leaving without the knitting (he thinks that the contents of the emergency yarn cupboard should suffice for the trip. Doesn't he realise that’s for an emergency?!!) and so I will wish you farewell and hope that you have a wonderful few weeks. I look forward to catching-up with you on my return xx